HT TO INSTAGRAM FOR ROLLING OUT MORE TRANSPARENCY IN SPONSORED CONTENT

Sponsored and influencer content has been a topic of interest to me-especially since I’ve participated in influencer programs myself.

And the Federal Trade Commission in the United States has some strict rules around influencers disclosing to their audiences when something is a partnership.

Basically it boils down to that the influencers need to disclose when they have a relationship with the brand they’re talking about.

In fact I have created my own page I try to link to whenever I need to be sure to disclose relationships on social media.

Instagram previously has gotten in the news with influencers who didn’t allegedly prominently display that their posts included a paid or other business partnership.

So it was great to see that in August 2017 Instagram rolled out a new feature that allows influencers to disclose partnerships. Here is the information that Instagram published on August 29, 2017:

So these tools allow influencers to tag branded content.

As you can see in the screenshot these tools are available for posts as well as Instagram Stories. So that’s great to see-especially as Instagram Stories continues to grow.

Of course, not everyone can use the tagging and brands have to declare who the actual influencers are.

Finally, the brands and the influencers can see how the post is performing. That sounds like another great improvement and partnership initiative.

I’ll have to see if I can find an opportunity to use this function and I’ll certainly keep an eye out for influences using it. In concept, this appears to be an improvement and I’m always happy when people choose to or have to be transparent.